Improved training, medical and competition facilities for all users including athletics, rugby and community sport

The creation of a community garden designed by local school children

A new media facility

Saracens chief executive officer, Mitesh Velani, said:

We have been working closely with Barnet Council and our community partners developing plans for the West Stand that we can all be proud of. I am delighted we have made positive strides forward.

The West Stand redevelopment project demonstrates our continued commitment to providing the best environment for our teams to thrive, a modern home where our fans create memories together and extending community initiatives that improve the lives of people in North London.

Allianz Park has become a thriving community hub with thousands of residents enjoying the high-quality facilities available at the stadium. The new West Stand will build on this success and through the Saracens Sport Foundation and our partnership with Middlesex University we can help improve the lives of even more local people.

The Club aims to start the construction phase at the end of the current rugby season (summer of 2019) with completion anticipated in 2020. Matches will continue to be played at Allianz Park during this period and the Club will keep supporters updated throughout the process.

Middlesex University has been working with Saracens on this project for several years. Together we have developed an exciting proposal for the West Stand and we are very pleased that London Borough of Barnet have been able to support us. The three organisations working together offer an exciting opportunity to make a real difference to Copthall and the Borough.

The Leader of Barnet Council, Councillor Richard Cornelius, said:

We should never underestimate the huge contribution both Saracens and Middlesex University have already made to the local community in Barnet. Saracens have transformed Allianz Park into a thriving community sports and education facility, hosting a huge range of events for schools, older people and those with learning disabilities. They have also recently opened the new Saracens High School.

This is a positive development for communities in Barnet. We are therefore delighted to support Saracens and Middlesex University in their plans to improve and build for the future.

Southport FC has put forward its vision for the medium term, which includes creating new high quality stadium facilities for the club and wider community. CEO Natalie Atkinson said:

The history books speak for themselves but today we start a new chapter at Haig Avenue, as we launched the vision for the coming years and I for one am delighted to be part of this exciting journey that we are on.

The overall and long term vision of Southport Football Club is to continue building a local football club that is both successful and sustainable on and of the football pitch.

We are aspiring to be back in the football league and achieve the status of being the focal football club of the town. From the achievement of this vision, we also aspire to build state of the art facilities whereby our teams, fans, supporters and community have an unforgettable experience and continue to support the football club. With this success we aim to attract more fans from the communities of Southport which will in turn boost the investment into the sustainability of the club.

Atkinson has identified a number of objectives:

• A new community foundation delivering a number of sustainable programmes for the target demographic in Southport, including adults and older people, children and young people in education, and targeted health activities.

• The implementation of the Southport College Academy for the 16-19 year old scholars. With the aim of delivering a high quality education NVQ football programme.

• Creating high quality stadium facilities not only for the Club but the wider community to access either on match days through corporate hospitality, businesses from Southport and beyond for networking opportunities and the delivery of many community initiatives – our aim to be come a community hub.

Molineux 50,000 capacity target

Wolves chairman Jeff Shi has revealed his dream for a 50,000 capacity stadium – and confirmed the club plans to stay at Molineux. He said:

Let’s try to get to 50,000 as soon as possible.

Everyone wants to have a big stadium. It’s a step by step process and only when we build a strong team and can compete comfortably in the Premier League is the time to expand the stadium.

Eventually, if we can achieve that, we’ll do it of course.

Laurie (Dalrymple, Wolves’ managing director) told me that the maximum capacity may be 50,000. I even asked him can we have a bigger one like Real Madrid’s! But it’s hard because the position of the stadium, the university is behind us.

After gaining planning from Croydon Council, Crystal Palace FC has confirmed it will start work on its Selhurst Park stadium redevelopment at the end of the 2018/19 season. Negotiations will now continue with the council over the terms of the Club’s Section 106 obligations to fund transport and community improvement initiatives. The council will refer the application to the London Mayor, and the planning permission will be issued once he has approved it.

Selhurst Park’s new main stand will take capacity to 34,000

Cornwall Council’s officers have recommended that councillors approve £3m from its ring-fenced economic development fund to build the proposed Cornwall Stadium, and to ask the Government to contribute the other £3m. The Stadium for Cornwall group, made up of the Cornish Pirates, Truro and Penwith College and Truro City Football Club, have asked Cornwall Council for £6m. Each has contributed £2m, with another £300,000 coming from Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL), the non-profit company that runs Cornwall’s leisure centres. The group had previously said it would borrow the final £2m but now has a plan to raise it through crowd funding.

Leicester City is holding a public consultation over plans for a new training facility between 10am and 3pm at King Power Stadium on Saturday 3 March. Representatives from Leicester City Football Club, project managers Deloitte and architects KSS Design Group will host an exhibition and discussion of site plans and strategy for the new facility – described by Vice-Chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha as a ‘once in a generation opportunity’.

The club says that the views of Foxes’ fans are vital to the success of the project, with all members of the Leicester community invited to attend the exhibition outside the City Fanstore. Along with the exhibition, there will be opportunities to ask questions about the Club’s plans for the site, which was previously occupied by Park Hill Golf Club and is a key element in King Power International’s long-term vision for the Football Club.

In addition to the discussions at King Power Stadium, a questionnaire will also be available on tablet devices to complete on-site.

The new training centre will include facilities for the Club’s First Team, Development Squad and Academy setups, as well as facilities to support the Club’s community programme and its efforts to promote inclusion and sports participation throughout the region.

In addition, as part of its commitment to research, development and innovation in sport and beyond, the Club intends to engage with the region’s major educational establishments to offer further opportunities for progressive collaboration in a world-class environment.

Leicester City Vice Chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha said: “The Club has experienced an extraordinary rate of growth in the last seven years and keeping the Leicestershire community at the heart of that growth has been and will continue to be a fundamental principle of our vision.

The new training ground is a truly exciting phase of our development and a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us to demonstrate both our ambition, and that of the city, on such a large scale. We want to invest in the best possible training facilities to develop and attract the world’s elite sporting talent to Leicester and to give them a competitive edge in a game that is constantly evolving.

It is crucial to us that the benefits brought about by the new development make the facility a source of pride for the Leicestershire community – known for so many years for its rich tradition in sporting development.

Chief Executive Susan Whelan said:

The new training ground is a very important project for the Club and is still in its early stages, with a lot of plans still to be finalised, but the acquisition of the site is a significant first step we want to share with our fans and with the Leicestershire community.

The forthcoming consultations will be an opportunity for the surrounding communities to learn more about the direction we would propose, to understand the opportunities the development will present and offer valuable feedback that we can take into the planning stages.

It’s an exciting time for the Football Club and another strong statement of long-term commitment from King Power International to the Club and the wider region.

Future plans for the site of the Club’s current training facility at Belvoir Drive in Leicester are under consideration and will be decided upon in due course.

QPR, Fulham, Chelsea and Harlequins are planning new or improved stadiums in the next few years. QPR’s plans are part of a larger development scheme while Chelsea is relying on its private funding sources. Harlequins is focusing on a future stadium capable of being a community asset and Fulham developing the retail opportunity provided by its Thameside location.

This is a significant moment for west London with the delivery of new homes, including significant numbers of affordable homes and jobs which will be a real boost to the area.

We are delighted to be working with Galliford Try Partnerships to deliver the Oaklands development and look forward to accelerating the delivery of more houses on other sites which will all help to deliver our long-term aim of a new stadium.”

Fulham FC Submits Riverside Plans

Fulham Football Club has submitted an application to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham council for the redevelopment of the Riverside stand at its historic Craven Cottage home. This application follows a period of consultation and open dialogue with residents, supporters, and many stakeholders with an interest in the project and local area.

The Club secured planning permission for its previous design in 2013. The new proposal, commissioned by Fulham FC’s Chairman Mr Shahid Khan, has incorporated a modern design that is sympathetic with the river and local area and best reflects the needs of the Club, community and neighbourhood by delivering a wide range of benefits both now and for future generations.

Craven Cottage’s development is part of a changing west London stadium landscape.

In addition to increasing the seating capacity at Craven Cottage, the Club has sought to add amenities to help transform the riverside walkway into a world-class leisure destination, both on matchdays and non-matchdays.

This new design will still allow the River Thames walkway to be opened up, an aspect of the approved design in 2013, and will incorporate bars, restaurants, and lounges—all of which will be open for business throughout the year.

The redevelopment will bring significant investments in the local community, adding new full-time jobs and further opportunities for employment.

Everyone here at Fulham Football Club is incredibly excited to submit this application, and we are confident that the plans we have laid out will both upgrade the current stand and add new facilities that everyone in the community will be able to enjoy and appreciate.

Harlequins aims to be centre of community

Harlequins have recently begun engage with Richmond Borough Council and the Greater London Authority concerning a new stadium. David Ellis, the Club’s chief executive said :

As our role in the community has grown so has our membership and supporter base, with nearly 10,000 Members and a 98% stadium capacity throughout the season. To allow us to continue our positive contribution to the Borough and London, we have now reached the point where we have to co-create a new, state-of-the-art Stadium, with accessible to all facilities. The emerging concept could place The Stoop firmly at the centre of the local community for another 100 years, creating a fantastic new destination to work, play and live.

Plymouth Argyle has begun a public consultation on plans for the redevelopment of Home Park, which include the new Mayflower grandstand and an ice rink on an adjacent site. The club held a supporters Q&A, which delves into the detail of the grandstand development, including standing areas, seating, bars. There was also a consultation over the weekend (21-22 July 2017) ahead of the club’s submission of a planning application including the wider development on sites adjacent to Home Park, which will include an ice-rink.

Argyle chairman James Brent said:

What we’re presenting are full plans, not just for the grandstand but setting that in the context of Higher Home Park and an additional piece of land that we that we have agreed, subject to planning, so people will be able to see the total picture.

The grandstand is clearly the core feature within it, but it also includes the proposed new ice-rink for Plymouth, which, in its own right, is very exciting because it will give us the only ice-rink west of Cardiff; and it will give those wonderful ice-skaters of all ages who’ve been practicing for so long to play a competitive match with an international standard ice-rink to play on.

York stadium timetable unclear

York’s Community Stadium was confirmed by the council in July but the councillor responsible has been asked to step aside, introducing new uncertainty. The York Press reports:

In mid-July, a project update was presented to ruling councillors saying a new builder had been signed up, and £2.6 million shaved off the costs.

At that point, an indicative timetable was set out which said financial and technical documents should be finalised in August.

It said the project should reach financial close – with the design, build, operate and manage (DBOM) contract and the commercial development agreements signed – by late August.

Once that was completed, the construction site mobilisation would happen in September and October before the DBOM contract goes live on October 1, and the building work starts in earnest by late October.

The July report also said that until financial close was reached the exact start could not be confirmed and added: â€œUntil this point there is therefore a risk further delays could be incurred.â€

Fans had expressed fears that the project could be hit by a councillor standards row at City of York Council.

Cllr Nigel Ayre, executive member for leisure of culture, is one of two councillors who were last week asked to stand aside by the council leader pending an investigation.

City officials have now confirmed that all Cllr Ayre’s responsibilities – including the Community Stadium project – have passed to the council leader Cllr David Carr.

Following talks late last year and a broad commitment from owner Firoz Kassam, negotiations continue about a handover of Kassam Stadium to the supporters’ trust OxVox. City Council leader Bob Price told the Oxford Mail:

It’s quite unique and there are quite significant issues in terms of liabilities of the trustees should they take over the ownership both short-term and long-term, as well as the relationship with the club.

The heads of terms we need to be drawn up are quite complex which is why we need advice on it.

OxVox, Kassam and Oxford City Council have been in negotiations over the 12,500-capacity stadium since October.

Owner of National League side Eastleigh Stewart Donald has joined the committee of OxVox and will be involved in the next meeting of the parties.

MK Dons Chairman Pete Winkelman is providing The Gift of Football to Milton Keynes residents to celebrate the 50th birthday of the new city. To mark Milton Keynes hitting the half-a-century milestone, Winkelman has given all his neighbours in an MK postcode the opportunity to claim a FREE ticket to visit Stadium MK and watch a match.

Milton Keynes’ official 50th birthday was on Monday 23rd January and each resident living in an MK postcode will be able to claim a FREE ticket to MK Dons’ first home league match in the new city’s 50th year, which is against Bolton Wanderers on Saturday 4th February, kick-off 3pm.

All MK Dons Season Ticket holders and Club Dons members outside the MK postcode will also be able to claim a free ticket for the match to give to a friend or family member.

Milton Keynes is a truly special and unique place and I’m proud to say it is my home. The people of Milton Keynes have shown me so much support over the years and I wanted to give everyone a gift that would celebrate MK50.

The Gift of Football is a great opportunity for my neighbours in the new city to come together to celebrate this milestone for Milton Keynes, as well as a chance to experience Stadium MK if they haven’t had the chance to so already.

The free ticket will be limited to one per person with proof of address required at the time of redemption. Any one of any age is eligible for the free ticket; however, the ticket must be claimed by over-18s only. Any under-12 must be accompanied by an adult within the stadium. Tickets are limited and are on a first-come, first-served basis.

UP TO 7 MAY 2017, THE OLYMPIC MUSEUM IN LAUSANNE IS OFFERING YOU THE CHANCE TO TAKE A MEMORABLE TRIP THROUGH TIME, FROM ANCIENT OLYMPIA TO THE OLYMPIC ARENAS OF THE 21ST CENTURY.

“Stadiums – Past and Future” is more than an exhibition; it’s an entire programme, with a diverse, multi-platform approach. It features a temporary exhibition, educational activities, a magazine-book, an online game and fun, original events.

This range of activities is about looking at stadiums as a whole, from different angles, and not only architecturally.

This exhibition at the Olympic Museum tackles stadium design, past, present and future.

The “Stadium by Stadium” exhibition begins with the “stadion”, the ancient Greek unit of measurement (equal to 192.27 metres, which, according to legend, was 600 times the length of Hercules’s foot. The exhibition briefly looks at the stadium of Olympia, which well and truly measured up, before moving on to the Colosseum in Rome, which was built in the 1st century AD. An incredible arena with more than 50,000 seats, the Colosseum was an innovational structure in many respects, and provided the inspiration for the majority of stadiums built in the centuries that followed.

“A stadium in the city” is an educational programme designed to teach pupils about what building a stadium in a city actually involves. Workshops and tablet-based activities give visitors the chance to explore this topic; younger children can enjoy a construction game with building blocks while teenagers get to stay digital with a multimedia game.

“Pierre de Coubertin in search of a sustainable stadium” is an online “serious game” that lets you play as the reviver of the modern Games as he travels to the present day to build an Olympic stadium in the future host city of the Games. Through interactions with the main stakeholders – the Mayor of the city, Mrs IOC, the head architect and a concerned citizen – he will learn that building a stadium nowadays means planning for sustainable development from beginning to end. It also means asking yourself the right questions, even if they’re not always that easy to answer.

At a “stadium-dating” event in January 2017, the general public will get the opportunity to chat with a panel of architecture and urban sociology experts over a drink, and learn more about stadiums from different perspectives.

And during Easter week 2017, a selection of ten films, short films and documentaries will be screened in The Olympic Museum Auditorium, giving the public a chance to explore the world of stadiums through images.

Building a stadium is about building for the future, altering a city’s urban landscape and leaving a legacy!

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park has changed since London 2012, a site cut off from the world around it, to a green space with people walking, cycling and boating through it, with the noise of traffic and construction. In short, it’s become part of London. At the A12 end of the Park, the Copper Box, Lee Valley VeloPark and Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre form a sporting triangle that’s augmented by BT Sports and Loughborough University’s new campus for sport management courses.

In this article, UKVMA interviews Jeremy Northrop about both venues . In a parallel article UKVMA interviews Richard Love about Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre.

Lee Valley VeloPark – vital cog in cycling sport

Lee Valley VeloPark General Manager Jeremy Northrop believes one of the main challenges facing the venue is to engage with a wide cycling audience and the general public not used to using a purpose built venue offering multi discipline types of cycling for all:

The prestige of the velodrome as an Olympic and Paralympic venue and the wonderful space gives us a unique venue that is proving popular to hire for corporate opportunities but this also gives us our biggest challenge as it can also act as a barrier for ordinary people and visitors who do not know what goes on inside and around this fantastic venue.

Not everyone realises Lee Valley VeloPark can be enjoyed by anyone, so we work to get clubs, schools, community groups and charities to use the venue, as well as international competition athletes.

The venue’s big screens and signage are reminders that this isn’t an ordinary building. The Olympic effect has resulted in 1.5 million since April 2014, on average 700,000 per year.

No cycling venue in the world gets close. Where else can you say ‘I’ve cycled on the same track on which Sir Chris Hoy, Laura Trott, Mark Colbourne won gold’? Unlike visiting Wembley, where visitors face signs to ‘keep off the grass’, we encourage people to ride on the same track as the world’s best cyclists.

Although the velodrome is booked solid at the moment, we predict a falling away of some of the one off bookings as the memory of London 2012 recedes. The challenge remains to integrate with the local and regional community to ensure long-term success. A growing residential and office area nearby will provide future customers. Northrop explains:

We are delivering a lasting legacy from the London 2012 Games and we will find a compromise between corporate and community use, and those who have never been on a cycle track before in their life. The indoor track programming is currently circa 25% private booking and corporates, 25% schools, clubs and groups and 50% general public. But in 3-5 years’ time the programming is unlikely to look the same.

Vibrant Partnerships has therefore revised the building’s priorities, turning the velodrome into a community and corporate venue capable of holding large events. But is a venue designed for an Olympic Games capable of this change? Northrop:

The building has presented some challenges but nothing damaging to our business. I love the way that the building looks. Given the chance, I would change some of the customer journeys and behind the scenes facilities, but I wouldn’t trade the ‘wow’ factor that people experience when they come in.

A burst of activity in the last decade has built three new indoor velodromes – in London, Glasgow and Derby – to join the National Cycling Centre in Manchester and the Wales National Velodrome in Newport. Jeremy meets with managers from the UK’s other velodromes twice a year and finds the information sharing process very helpful, especially around programming trends.

Lee Valley VeloPark, and in particular, the velodrome, makes itself available to British Cycling for major events but Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and Vibrant Partnerships are fully responsible for the upkeep and management of the venue and how it operates and receives no lottery or British Cycling funding for the day to day operations.

Big event days

Lee Valley VeloPark hosted a sell-out world hour track attempt by Bradley Wiggins and earlier this year hosted the best-attended UCI Track Cycling World Championships ever. This was quickly followed by a week of Comic Relief events, with stars practising with the public during training prior to the show in a major BBC-funded broadcast event. So how does the venue team take on these exceptional events?

It’s exciting to work on these events. Job roles are quite diverse and we’ve a great team at Vibrant Partnerships who get stuck in. A number of staff are NVQ level 4 qualified safety officers which help in managing such large events and spectator numbers. We have people here who worked during Games time so bring that experience. We also have volunteers, some of whom were Gamesmakers. We schedule carefully to be fair to volunteers who sometimes want to be at every event.

Six Day London event.

Jeremy Northrop is also in no doubt about the personal satisfaction of managing such a venue:

Where else are you going to get a World Championships on your CV? Big events are exciting and people love working here.

Vibrant Partnerships staff multi-task between day to day and big events, which require out of hours shifts. The venue currently hosts approximately one spectator event per month. Even when an overlay is in the velodrome, BMX, Road and Mountain Bike activities can continue most of the time. There’s no hanging around getting back to normal use either; the recent World Championships ended on a Sunday, and after a rapid ‘get-out’, the velodrome opened for normal business on the following Tuesday. At another event saw damage to the track and colleagues worked through the night so that the venue could open to the public the following morning. This is different to many of the other high profile venues and theatres where there will be programme quiet time for change-overs and setting up events.

On the different working patterns, Jeremy Northrop observes:

We have to balance our programme carefully and it is a real challenge. We don’t want to be too quiet for too long but neither do we want to be too busy for too long. The amount of work involved in organising, preparing, running and bumping out an event takes longer than people think or expect and doing very long hours during the bump in, event days and bump out is standard.

Day to day staff at Lee Valley VeloPark consist of an assistant manager, duty managers, centre assistant, customer service assistants, management support, coaches, catering, mechanics, engineers and sports-related staff. Vibrant Partnerships has multi-skilled operatives dealing with electrical and mechanical equipment. Three grounds maintenance staff look after landscaping in this part of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. For a large event like the World Championships, the building is staffed 24/7 for a fortnight, with all staff on a rota.

Collaboration between Vibrant Partnerships venues brings value in many ways. The proximity of Lee Valley VeloPark and Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre means that they can combine in hosting large-scale events. Jeremy Northrop and Richard Love have a friendly rivalry around record capacities. The velodrome holds the record at 55,000 for its recent five day World Championships, while June’s Hockey Champions Trophy at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre will have around 40,000 spectators.

Lee Valley VeloPark development

After the London 2012 Olympic Games, the velodrome was remodelled to support community use, and re-opened fully in April 2014. Development work included the building of a one mile road circuit, a remodelled 390 metre BMX track and skills area and miles of mountain bike trails.

The velodrome is only one part of the VeloPark.

The velodrome houses treatment rooms, newly opened ‘VeloStudio’ consisting of top of the range indoor fitness and training bikes. Balance bikes and pump track activities are provided within the track centre, offering cycling for children aged two years and above. Cycle Surgery provides the retail partnership for the venue and the in-house catering service provides opportunities to develop the offer and increase revenue. Jeremy Northrop is looking to develop indoor BMX’ing, via a purpose built pump track to make it weather-independent. An extra section has been recently added to the road circuit to make a smaller loop that is flatter and more accessible for disabled groups and novice hand-cyclists. Areas outside the velodrome have been used for temporary marquees during large scale events and are contenders for more permanent structures to be built and there are discussions about covering the outside BMX track.